hould the sail once be got
up, the boat would have little chance of catching her. Rhymer, however,
was not likely to give up the pursuit. Finding that his threats were
not attended to, he fired one of the muskets, but whether any person was
hit Ned could not discover. Again Rhymer fired, and then reloaded both
muskets. Ned was so engaged in watching the boat, that he scarcely took
notice of the proceedings of the Arabs on board his own dhow. He
observed, however, that one of them, a young man with a better-looking
countenance than most of his companions, had remained aft, while the
rest were attempting to hoist the sail, though from some cause or other
the halyards appeared to have got foul.

"Go forward, Cox, and see what those fellows are about," he said; "I'll
take the helm."

The seaman obeyed, while Stone, beckoning to the young Arab to come to
his assistance, stood by to haul in the main sheet. The only thing in
the shape of a boat was a small canoe which lay in the after part of the
vessel. Aided by Cox, the sail was soon hoisted, but scarcely had the
dhow heeled over to the breeze, than cries arose from the Arab crew, who
made frantic gesticulations, indicating that the vessel was sinking.
Ned at once suspected the cause; their second shot must have struck the
bows of the dhow between wind and water, and had probably started a
plank, so as to allow the sea, like a mill stream, to rush into her.
There was little hope of stopping it. Ned put up the helm. "Lower the
sail!" he shouted as he had never shouted before; the seamen endeavoured
to obey the order, but the halyards had again become jammed, and to his
dismay he saw that the bows of the dhow were rapidly sinking. As the
water rushed into the hold the poor blacks uttered the most piercing
shrieks, while the panic-stricken Arabs in a body frantically sprang
towards the after part of the vessel; but as they came along, the light
deck gave way beneath their weight, and the whole of them were
precipitated on to the heads of the hapless negroes below.

"We must save ourselves, sir," cried Stone, lifting the canoe. "It is
our only chance, or we shall be drowned with the rest."

"Where is Cox?" exclaimed Ned.

He had fallen in among the struggling Arabs and blacks. Ned caught
sight of him for a moment, and was springing forward to help him out
from their midst, when the stern of the dhow lifted. Stone launched the
canoe and leaped into her, shouting